European Affairs

I shall make a bit of progress now; I have given way many times. We ought also to expect Labour support for limiting the remit of the European Court of Justice over criminal justice. Three years ago, the right hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid), then Home Secretary, said that the Government's view was that the EU's competence on that issue should not be extended. We plan to reinstate that position, which the Government have so weakly abandoned. This is likely to be the last European affairs debate before the general election. It takes place against a certain background: the European Union's standing in this country has never been lower, and I regret that fact. The explanation is simple. Under this Government, the European Union has become something that is often perceived to be done to the British people, not by them. More decisions to which the British people have never assented are now being taken at European level. If, as I hope, the British people entrust my party with the government of the country at the next election, our task will be to put that right, to show that powers can be returned from the EU to a member state, to put Britain's role in the EU on a more positive footing and to give British leadership on the great issues that European countries face together—energy security, climate change, global poverty and global competitiveness. It will be our task to give the British people a European policy in which they can believe. We will seek a positive mandate for those changes at the general election. If that mandate is granted, we will seek to achieve them in government thereafter.